Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER May 30, 2016 6 NEWS SPONSORED BY Drug plans: Past, present and future Drug plans: Past, present and future With an aging population, more treatable diseases and a growing number of specialty drugs available, drug plans in Canada are seeing dramatically rising costs. Sarah Dobson, editor/supervisor of Canadian HR Reporter, moderated a special roundtable looking at drug plans in the workplace. The discussion covered a range of topics, including: how these plans have evolved through the years; the relationship between insurance companies, plan sponsors, plan members and health-care providers; evidence-based drug plans and tiered formularies; financial disincentives such as co-pay or co- insurance rates; preferred pharmacy networks; and generic substitutions. Look for a special report in the June 13 issue of Canadian HR Reporter. PANELISTS: • Tim Clarke, chief innovation officer, Canadian health and benefits consulting, Aon Hewitt • Barb Conway, VP of HR & customer experience, Thomson Reuters Legal Canada • Jonathan Fournier, senior associate, advisor in group-insurance plans, Mercer • Atul Goela, product director, pharmaceutical product development, Sun Life Financial • Alan Kyte, senior pharmacy consultant, Willis Towers Watson • Antonia Sfichtelis, manager, total rewards & information systems, HR, FedEx Express Canada • Jeannine Quinn, regional director, HR/Canada operations, Bridgestone Canada Canadian HR Reporter presents an exclusive roundtable on Vancouver most competitive city for HR In-demand skills include HRIS profi ciency, succession planning: Report BY LIZ FOSTER ON any given day, an average of 2,250 HR positions are waiting to be fi lled at more than 1,300 em- ployers across Canada. And the most competitive city for HR is Calgary, with a rating of 49 po- tential candidates per job listing, according to a report from Rand- stad Canada. Vancouver, in contrast, boasts 24 potential candidates per job listing. is represents a signifi - cant shift from last year, said Tom Turpin, president of technologies and engineering at Randstad Can- ada in Toronto. "If you look at diff erent market- places in general, Vancouver is the hottest marketplace in Canada. It's the most competitive market- place for employers and the least competitive employment place for employees. In other words, there's the highest demand for the least amount of supply in Vancouver. It's not surprising that, based on what's happened with oil and gas, Calgary has gone the other way. Calgary was, for a little while, the mecca of job growth in Canada, but it's really gone the other way." Vancouver's high economic growth over the past few years saw it pull ahead of Toronto, he said. " at compound growth leads to a fair bit of demand. Demand creates job creation and job cre- ation leads to HR requirements — whether it's for attraction or retention, for promotion or talent management. All of that com- pounds to work together." at increase came from the growth of existing organizations as well as the establishment of new employers in Vancouver, said Tur- pin, as the city becomes a hub for socially conscious organizations. And the fastest growing sectors for HR are construction, manu- facturing, transportation and warehousing, he said. " ose are the sectors with the highest growth rates and that gen- erally creates the highest pressure for those roles." The most in-demand roles across the country include HR managers, recruiters, HR gener- alists and HR co-ordinators. And the skills most in demand refl ect the everyday demands of the HR department and the long-term planning skills necessary for guid- ing an organization as it grows and evolves, according to Randstad. Skills such a bilingualism, suc- cession planning and profi ciency in human resources information systems top the list. is shift in focus is in keeping with the general shift in percep- tion in the world of human re- sources, said Lisa Kay, president and lead consultant for Peak Per- formance HR in Toronto. "As businesses continue to pop up and continue to grow, it's important to recognize and un- derstand what human resources is there for. In the past, human resources was viewed as really administrative employees, paper- pushers or policy-driven work- ers," she said. "People didn't really see the value of human resources, but I think now companies are re- ally starting to see the value it can bring in terms of strategic growth and aligning people and corporate objectives. ere is far more of a strategic focus now." In the past, when organiza- tions looked at HR professionals and determined what their core competencies were, they focused on administrative tasks, said Kay. "Now, it's a lot more complex than that," she said. "There are higher expectations for human resources in general. ey're not there just to push paper, they're there to help the company develop strategies and examine what the root cause is for something like turnover. It's not just a matter of re- placing people anymore, it's about understanding why that person left and whether or not that's part of a larger trend. Now, you're looking for someone with a far more ana- lytical, far more strategic mindset." e issue of turnover and fi t has become a big trend in HR, said Rowan O'Grady, president of Hays Canada in Toronto " ere's defi nitely been more of a trend in the last year for roles revolving around talent manage- ment," he said. "Companies seem now to be more aware of the cost of losing people and of losing good people and it also seems to be a kind of trending topic." e biggest mistakes are made when an interviewer doesn't have options, said O'Grady. "If you've only got one candi- date who's qualifi ed, they would probably hire that person. e more options a company has, the more applications they have, the better hiring decision they will make." HR managers, recruiters, HR generalists and HR co-ordinators are most in demand. Vancouver Calgary Toronto Montreal Halifax HR manager $83,800 – $85,800 – $83,700 – $78,900 – $75,000 – $101,300 $103,500 $101,500 $96,000 $91,300 Recruiter/ $59,300 – $60,400 – $58,600 – $55,400 – $52,500 – talent $71,600 $73,200 $71,100 $67,100 $63,800 acquisition specialist HR generalist $58,400 – $59,500 – $57,800 – $54,500 – $51,700 – $69,700 $71,300 $69,300 $65,300 $62,100 Source: Randstad Salary Guide 2016 Average annual salaries for HR

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